Here's a response from Kyle Chisek in the mayor's office:Matt -

The SAFE Oversight Committee, made up of all the stakeholders, including homeless advocates, police, neighborhoods and business representatives were given the responsibility to determine when they felt it was appropriate to begin enforcing the ordinance. They have been meeting on a regular basis (weekly) for months and are confident that things are in place to the degree that they are comfortable with.

Attached is the letter from the SAFE Oversight Committee to City Council stating "We [SAFE Oversight Committee] recommend that the ordinance go forward in conjunction with the other parts of the consensus. We note that the ordinance contains a number of safeguards, that it will expire by its own terms in two years unless renewed by Council, and that its enforcement will be subject to formalized and frequent scrutiny in the meantime."

The consensus agreement did not specify "building" new restrooms, nor did it specify the number of people needing to be served at any given time at the Day Center but did specify six benches. The specified six benches are in place. Twenty-five more have been ordered to fill additional needs that the SAFE Oversight Committee identified.

The Oversight Committee decided to provide elements of a Day Center after consulting with the homeless community in place of a second day center. Lockers and showers were identified by members of the community as priorities and are currently requested in a Request For Proposals.

Let me know if you have more questions.

Kyle

Technicalities.

I've emailed Kyle back asking how the mayor's office would respond to this paragraph of Leonard's letter:

"I appreciate the Council's effort to pursue a thoughtful approach to this challenging issue. Unfortunately, I do not believe any of you agreed to the hasty, enforcement-centric approach currently being undertaken by the Police Bureau and the Portland Business Alliance. I am hopeful that the Council will delay the implementation of the sidewalk obstruction ordinance until there are adequate resources available for those displaced by it."

The homeless will have to learn to sleep standing up and with their eyes open. No restrooms? No problem. Get adult diapers. Hey, if it's good enough for astronauts!

So now a day center has been replaced by "elements" of one, and in addition those "elements" much await an RFP process?

Basically what this means is that when Major Tom actually DOES try to do something, he fucks it up.

Where's the homeless community activists on this? How come it takes Randy saying something and not someone on the SAFE committee?

How about these, from last Thursday's meeting of the SAFE oversight group?

“It seems like the bottom line is we’re looking to open maybe two new stalls,” said Neil Dower, a civic action organizer with the homeless non-profit group, Sisters of the Road.

Several on the committee raised concerns about all the compromises it had to make, relative to the timing of enforcement of the law, including Sisters of the Road director Genny Nelson, Jamal Folsom, who represents Commissioner Erik Sten’s office, and Mark Jolin, executive director of the homeless charity Join.

Meanwhile, downtown police and Portland Patrol Inc officers have been trained in how to enforce the ordinance and will start doing so on June 9—the day of the Rose Festival Parade—unless Commissioner Leonard’s new effort is successful.

“The bigger the gap between the ordinance and the service delivery, the harder it is to believe that we’re taking our service role seriously,” said Jolin. “Services aren’t at the level I think most people expected when this ordinance was enacted.”

“Getting the restrooms online is probably the hardest political issue,” agreed committee co-chair Monica Goracke of the Oregon Law Center—who proposed pushing for temporary restrooms until the new 24-hour facility can be built.

Kyle Chisek in the mayor's office responds:

"The Mayor will respond to Commissioner Leonard directly.

Kyle"

I hope they have a good talk.

Israel Bayer of homeless activist group Street Roots says: "I think it's a fair assessment to say that even though Street Roots did not support the ordinance in the first place, if it is going to be enacted, it should not be enacted unless the other elements of the SAFE plan are both funded and in place. At the moment it's creating a process that doesn't fulfill what was originally intended."

It's like we elected Mayor Francesconi after all.

Looks like there isn't any consensus anymore. So what else is there too the argument?

Check out tomorrow's issue of the paper for more.

Wow, looks like Kyle needs to re-read the workgroup's consensus document... Or at least hide it so no one else can read it. It says they will provide "more" restrooms. Without building new ones, that might be kind of hard Kyle, wont it?